Catepan Argyrus

Catepan Argyrus (1000-1068) was the Byzantine Catepan of Italy from 1050 to 1058, succeeding John Raphael and preceding Miriarch.

Biography
Argyrus was born in 1000, the son of the Lombard nobleman Melus of Bari. Following the Battle of Cannae in 1018, the Byzantines captured Melus' family and took them to Constantinople, and, in 1038, Argyrus was pressed into Byzantine service for an invasion of Sicily. Emperor Constantine IX of Byzantium secured his loyalty by bribing him and making him Catepan; Argyrus then suppressed a revolt in Apulia. Argyrus was awarded with the title "Duke of Italy, Calabria, Sicily, and Paphlagonia", and he formed an alliance with the Papal States against the Normans, leading to the Papal defeat at the Battle of Civitate in 1053. Argyrus was recalled in 1058 and died in 1068.